Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 29th cycle. Now cycle 30!

Hear that little bird twitter! Been thinking about doing this for a couple days, then this morning decided to just go for it. If you go there, find 'gleekathon' and there I'll be. There's also a video explaining everything... Yep... ;) Check it out!

"Mi casa es Sue's casa"
Sue & Brittany, the Pierces, New Directions
Sylvesters Series #25 (following 'Painted Doors' & 'Of Two Hearts')

There had always been things that bothered her about this keeping the mother secret thing, well, a secret. The top was and would always be the fact that she not only had to lie to everyone in her life except for those close enough to be aware regardless, but she couldn't claim this identity of hers out in the open most of the time. But beyond that, right up there, the biggest issue was not being able to have people over. It wouldn't seem like much to certain people, but it mattered to her. She had never had sleepovers, no parties, not even a simple get together to watch a movie or do homework… She always had to find one way or another to steer these get-togethers to someone else's house, not hers.

But her circumstances had changed now. She still had her secret, that hadn't changed, but now she lived in two places. There was her first, original, and primary home, with her mother, and now since the summer she also had her father's place, with him, her stepmother and her sisters. She was sharing her time between the two houses now and, as hard as it was to be apart from her mother, she did enjoy getting to know her other family as well. And now, she was about to do something she had never done.

She had asked her father about it, about having the Glee Club over for a small sort of end of summer get together. She didn't know if she expected him to need convincing or if he'd flat out say no, but when he said yes, within just seconds, she grinned and hugged him. Then she called Santana and the planning began. It would take place the next Friday, and she could hardly wait.

Cat and Izzy had been set up to spend that Friday night at their friends' houses, though their one request was that they would at least get to meet Brittany's guests. The decision was that, as it was still summer, and as this was all aimed at celebrating this end of summer, the party would take place in the yard, with the pool and all.

She wasn't sure what was going on with her mother, but whenever she would bring up the party, her mother would either change the subject or abruptly leave the room. She didn't want to think about whether it was something she'd done… she never liked seeing her be upset… But then she did have to get ready for Friday. Santana came early. She had already been to the house, of course, several times, and she had made a big impression on the little sisters.

"Santana's here!" Izzy called from the window, running to open the door. "Santana!" she greeted her.

"Dizzy Izzy!" Santana held out her hand and got a high-five.

"We're in the back," she guided her to the yard. They had barely reached the door when the doorbell rang. Izzy looked up, excited. Santana just motioned for her to go on and get it before joining Cat and Brittany in the yard. Izzy opened the door to find four of them on the doorstep. "Hi! Who are you?" she asked, anxious for the answer. The boy in the wheelchair made the introductions.

"I'm Artie, this is Tina, Kurt, and Mercedes," he pointed left, right, and over his head. "I'm guessing you're Brittany's sister?" he asked, and she nodded.

"I'm Izzy. Come on, we're in the yard," she let them walk in, looking at each of them before closing the door behind them and moving ahead to lead them on. Once she'd deposited them with the others, she returned to the window, the better to see the others come. It was a good call, as not a minute later she spotted two boys and a girl coming up. They introduced themselves as Puck, Mike, and Quinn, and after Izzy had introduced herself, she took them to the yard as well. She'd made the count, and this meant there were only two missing now. They arrived just a few minutes later, and so she was introduced to Rachel and Finn. She took them to the yard, where those who had already made it were getting along just fine. Most of them were either in or around the pool. Izzy saw Puck take a laughing Cat and jump in the water with her, and she ran off to make sure she had her turn, too, before they were taken to their respective sleepovers by their mother.

"I can't believe we've never been here before," Mike was the one to make the comment she had kind of expected. At least it didn't look like it would catch on.

"Yeah, guess it is," she still nodded along, like it was strange to her as well, even though she'd only lived here… less than a month, all days put together.

Brittany took care in getting to show them around the house. Kitchen, living room, her room… Her room was the part she'd been looking forward to the most, if she had to say. She introduced them to Lord Tubbington, who in his infinite 'ex' smoker feline ways, showed little interest in meeting everyone. It felt like she finally got to say 'this is me, this is my world.' Still she knew that this was barely a secondary replica to her room at her mother's, the one she'd grown up in.

When they'd all gone home, she'd gone back to her room, sat on her bed with the cat curled up in her lap… Having them all there that night, it had been great… wonderful… but it also left her with other thoughts, other feelings… Her father was the one to hit it on the nose, coming to stand at the door to her room. "Want me to take you back to your mother's tonight?" She looked up.

"Yeah…" she admitted.

"I'll go start the car," he gave her a smile.

When they got to the house, Brittany walked in, with her bag in one hand and the cat carrier in the other, looking for her mother. She found her in her room, lying on the bed, absently watching television. "Mom?" she spoke, drawing her attention.

"Brittany…" Sue sat up, turning the television off. "What are you doing here? Are you alright?"

"Didn't feel like staying over there tonight," she explained, putting her things down and moving to sit at the foot of the bed, facing her mother. "All I could think about was… I'm showing them my house, I'm showing them my house…" she started, staring off into nowhere before looking back to her mother. "But all I wanted was to be home," she gave her a smile. She saw that look on her mother's face, the one where she tried to keep her joy in check… she wasn't fooling her.

"Do you… Want to watch this movie with me?" she pointed the remote at the television. Brittany didn't have to be told twice, crawling over to sit by her side while Sue turned the television on again.

"Why does that guy have a gun?" Brittany asked after a minute.

"Trust issues," Sue shook her head. They watched the movie in silence for a while, though Brittany could feel her mother gazing at her every so often, almost like she couldn't believe she was there. Maybe so she'd know that she really was, she wrapped her arm around her mother's, putting her head on her shoulder. It was all they could have ever wanted or needed on that night, to know they had one another, and that they'd find their way.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!